Over the years, the manner of selling, storing, and dispensing such staple commodities as milk, has altered very dramatically. Glass bottles have given way to plastic jugs and paper cartons; and form-filled flexible plastic bags are now becoming more and more widely used. Of course, it has been known for some time for milk (and such other consumable liquid products such as wine) to be sold for storage in flexible plastic bags, but those bags have capacities of anywhere from 4 liters to 40 liters or more. With the possible exception of 4 liter dispensers of wine, such sales of potable liquids in flexible plastic bags are to the commercial or industrial markets--i.e., restaurants, hospitals, school cafeterias, and the like. Milk, on the other hand, is being sold in continually greater quantities, and in ever increasing market areas, in flexible plastic bags generally having a capacity of 1.33 liters, 1.5 U.S. quarts or 1 Imperial quart; where three or four such form-filled plastic bags of milk are, themselves, packaged in an over wrapping or bag for sale. Obviously, every such bag is substantially totally filled, having no void areas; and since each is flexible, it is incapable of being dispensed from except when secured in another dispensing container. If, for example, a fully filled flexible plastic bag of milk were to be opened such as by cutting off a corner thereof, it would be nearly impossible to controllably dispense milk from the bag if it were being held in the hand, unless the opening through which the milk will be dispensed is very small.
Since the time that 1.5 quart or 1.33 liter flexible plastic bags of milk have been introduced into the market, pitchers have also been introduced into the market, generally comprising simply a pitcher or jug whose dimensions approximated those of the bag itself. As an example, a typical pitcher or jug for flexible plastic milk bags is simply an open pitcher or jug of approximately seven inches to eight inches in height, three inches in width, and five inches from front to back. In order to store and dispense milk using flexible bags and such pitchers, it has appeared simply to be necessary to place the flexible plastic bag of milk into the pitcher, cut off the front corner thereof using a knife or a pair of scissors, and tip the pitcher with the milk bag in it so as to dispense milk therefrom. This, however, has over the years proven to be unsatisfactory, for at least the following reasons: First, dimensions of flexible plastic bags in which milk has been sold may vary so that if the bag is too high, it may tend at least in the beginning to "flop" forward and thereby given an uncontrolled flow from the cut corner. Also, as milk is dispensed from time to time from the bag, unless the bag collapses relatively evenly, it is still possible for there to be uncontrolled flow from the bag. A principal concern and cause for complaint, however, has been that once the flexible plastic bag has been opened, there has been no easy or practical way of closing it once again; many users have resorted to such means as spring loaded clothes pins, paper clips, and the like, so as to try to keep the milk in an opened flexible bag from spoiling and/or absorbing refrigerator odors.
A recent product that has entered the market is one sold by Totson Products Inc. of Willowdale, Ontario, Canada, having a slide-on lid. This product--in respect of which patents are said to be pending--is one which has a pitcher having the general dimensions of a flexible plastic bag of milk, into which a bag of milk is inserted; and a lid that is slid onto the pitcher from the back side thereof, and engages shoulders at the sides thereof by inturned lips beneath the side edges of the lid. The engagement of the lid to the pitcher is such that the top of the plastic bag is slightly forwardly pushed, so that (hopefully) the front corner of the bag protrudes from an opening which is formed in the pitcher and between the pitcher and the lid, at the front upper corner thereof. Thereafter, a pair of scissors is used to cut the protruding corner by snipping it in a side-to-side manner, so that milk may be dispensed from the pitcher. However, once the bag has been cut, it is not possible to close it; and the fact that the corner of the bag more or less fills the opening at the upper front corner of the pitcher, and is confined by the lid or cover thereof, makes it substantially impossible even to attempt to close the bag such as by placing a clothes pin over the edges of the cut corner.
Other patent structures that have been noted, in respect of which milk is stored in a flexible plastic bag, are all of the kind that is used for restaurant or the like purposes. For example, Scholle, et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,940,018 issued Feb. 24, 1976, teach a combined container and dispenser where a reuseable, rigid case may have a flexible plastic bag filled with the milk or other liquids placed therein. However, the bag has a dispensing tube such that the liquid may be dispensed by gravity from the bottom of the bag, the whole case being such that it will fit into a standard bulk milk dispensing cabinet.
A generally similar container for plastic bags having dispensing tubes, for use in bulk dispensing cabinets or machines, is taught by Kapper in U.S. Pat. No. 3,908,864 issued Sept. 30, 1975.
Yet another patent, also relating to a container for a flexible bag of milk having a dispensing tube, this time having a removable front wall which is transparent, is taught in Smith et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,871,559 issued Mar. 18, 1975.
The present invention, on the other hand, is directed to a covered pitcher in which flexible plastic bags filled with milk or other potable liquids may be placed; but unlike any prior art or commercially available products, the present invention specifically provides means whereby the upper front corner of the flexible plastic bag may be cut from the bag, and moreover that the open corner may be closed and opened so as to permit dispensing of the liquid when desired.
In general terms, the present invention provides a pitcher whose dimensions accommodate a flexible plastic bag, where the volume of the pitcher-like bottom portion of the structure of the present invention approximates that of the volume of an unopened flexible bag of liquid such as milk. A substantially rigid top portion is adapted to fit to the pitcher like bottom portion, so as to provide a cover therefore; and, of course, a handle is associated with the back face of the bottom portion so as to facilitate lifting, carrying, and tipping of the pitcher. The top portion is formed at its upper front corner with a frontwardly and upwardly facing opening, through which the front and upper corner of an unopened bag of milk or other liquid which is placed in the pitcher may protrude, when the top is placed on the pitcher. The opening is at least partially covered by a cutter head which has a cutting edge, and the structure is such that the cutter head and cutting edge are moveable upwardly and downwardly in the opening. By that means, any portion of the flexible plastic bag which protrudes through the opening may be cut by the cutting edge when it is moved downwardly past and over that protruding portion of the flexible plastic bag.
The cutter head, moreover, co-operates with a pair of curved and rockable arms, which have a pair of inwardly directed opposed closer faces. The closer faces are curved away from each other at least in the upper portions of each, and are mounted in such a way as to be in close proximity to each other over a substantial portion of the length of each closer face when the cutter head is moved to the lower end of the frontwardly and upwardly facing opening in the top. The structure of the closer faces, therefore, is such that when the cutter head is moved downwardly to the lower end of the opening, the material of the bag below the cut corner is captured between the opposed closer faces on the rockable arms, and thereby the opening is relatively well closed.
Indeed, where each of the opposed closer faces is formed with a plurality of teeth which mesh and co-operate together with the teeth on the other of the opposed closer faces, and the cutter head is moved to the bottom of the opening so as to bring the lower portions of the closer faces into close proximity with each other, the meshing of the teeth in the opposed closer faces over the bag material will be such as to substantially seal the open corner of the bag. By "sealing" the open corner of the bag, what is meant is that inadvertent sloshing of the pitcher and spilling of the milk from the bag may be substantially precluded; and the bag is sufficiently sealed so as to at least retard if not substantially preclude the likelihood of the milk absorbing refrigerator odors or otherwise spoiling.